Kids.

[Liam Stewart: TAG]

As far as N!Prime is concerned, have there ever been nova children? And if so, how many are there?

Here's the thing. The books go back and forth. One moment it sounds like a single nova on nova pregnancy is enough to mobilize the resources of Proteus and the next it sounds like there are some nova kids out there.

I think there are kids. I know some people are going to have a cow over that but here's what I think. Proteus isn't concerned about nova kids, they're worried about homo sapien novus replacing baseline humanity. Some people think the sterility conspiracy is heavy handed but once you consider how easily, one for one, a single quantum fueled nova has a much greater impact on the world than a baseline... Proteus fears don't seem so incredible anymore. But Proteus morality is a different story and not part of this question. So I think there kids.

I think the sterilization keeps the number down, maybe something like 1:10 or even 1:100. Maybe those are the lucky novas that didn't get a bottle of loaded Andrenocilline or Moxiquatamine when they checked into a Rash Facility, were quantum lucky, or maybe their immune systems just weren't buying the mickey. Either way most novas aren't going to rush out and have (or have more of) a family so lots of those novas aren't going to settle down any time soon.

I think novas breed true. It makes sense with both the egg and sperm charged with quantum that their kid is going to be nova. Nova on baseline gets a little more complicated. The gene sequence for being a nova is suppose to be passed on the mothers side so if Mom is a nova the kid will carry the gene as a recessive and is a latent nova. If Dad is the nova and Mom is a baseline then the kid is baseline because he just didn't get the gene. If Mom is a latent then the kid is most probably a latent with a small chance of being nova. If Dad is the latent then same thing but I would guess the odds of are a little greater of being nova because the child would be carried in a quantum enriched environment (Mom's tummy) for nine months.

Here's the way it looks to me:

Mom /Dad : Child

Nova/Nova: Nova

Base/Base: Baseline

Nova/Base: Probable Latent

Base/Nova: Baseline

Nova/Late: Latent (possible nova)

Late/Nova: Latent (less possible nova)

So to definitely have novas breeding true you would have to have two nova parents that both want and could breed (no aberrations that make that impossible, no Proteus sterilility). Any other combination results in no nova children although some might be latents. Overall this sounds like a low number to me. Nothing Proteus would care about although they would probably make a conscious effort to sterilize one or the other parents, and maybe/probably the children, at the first opportunity.

[kestrel404]

Somewhere on this site is a document referring to 2nd gen novas. It's all in-house rules, but pretty interesting regardless.

[Ashnod]

The only definite references in canon we have are the Terat children in Bounty's nursery.

We're told, "home to nearly a dozen Terat children. Although yet have most to erupt, they are nonetheless among the world's only nova offspring."

From this, we can imply that at least one of them has erupted. Bounty sought out the Teragen in 2005, and since the Teragen book is set mostly around the time Mal came out of Chrysalis (and Bounty makes reference to the children being "alien," in the same way that Mal is alien, while Mal is in Chrysalis), that the children who HAVE erupted are pretty young.

Whether or not this "alien" nature is due to them being 2nd generation or due to their upbringing isn't known, though Bounty states specifically in her journal that even the most inhuman Harvester doesn't strike her as being as "removed" as Mal and the Children are.

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We know in the ELITE book that Anna DeVries was pregnant. We don't know what happens to her child, when that child erupts (if at all), etc, but by the time WWII comes into play she should have given birth.

[Hugin]

As for N!Prime I think we have had 2nd gens mentioned. I mentioned them once, in reference to a TT, before it became more evident I needed to seperate Prodigy TT and Prodigy NPrime. We also had Bungee and the suggestion was definitely that she was a 2nd gen.

[Wakinyan]

Don't we have a few second Gens on the board now anyway? I mean it is possible a 2nd Gen could be 15 or 16 years old by now. Remote I admit but possible.

[Ghostwriter]

Apep is supposedly one.

[Ashnod]

No supposed about it!